5
comments:

Anonymous
said...

March 9, 2010 at 5:10 PM

What's not clear about it? They're saying that if the public option isn't in the health care reform bill, then individuals shouldn't be mandated to buy health insurance, as the bill in its current form says we will. No points for penmanship, but the point is pretty clear.

Barbara
said...

March 12, 2010 at 9:07 AM

it doesn't seem logical to me. Without an individual mandate, there is no hope of a public option ever working. the person creating this sign just wants entitlements and doesn't understand at all how health insurance works.

Anonymous
said...

March 13, 2010 at 12:28 PM

Barbara,I think the sign is arguing that without a public option, an individual mandate is just forcing people to buy insurance from private companies.

Some have argued that this would just be a big "gimme" for the insurance industry, since they would gain millions of customers; some of those customers are unwanted because of chronic health problems, but many of them are (mostly young) people who've decided they'd rather wager on their good health than pay insurance premiums -- insurers would absolutely love to force them all to buy insurance.

Whether a bill with an individual mandate but no public option benefits or hurts insurers really depends on what other regulatory stuff is in the bill, but I do think it's self-evidently a weaker reform, one more vulnerable to subversion in the near-future: all you need to do is dig out some loopholes in the regulatory structure while keeping the rules forcing everyone to buy (private) health insurance. If a public plan were to be established, opponents of universal healthcare would have to overcome far greater political inertia to dismantle the system.

-- Alex

Craig
said...

March 17, 2010 at 9:44 AM

Alex,

there is no way for the current business model of insurance to work AND cover everyone, unless everyone is buying insurance. The healthy offset the costs of the sick. If we all waited to buy insurance until we needed it, it would bankrupt the industry and no one would get any health insurance.

Plus, that mindset makes about as much sense as waiting until your house is on fire to by homeownerjavascript:void(0)s insurance.

Search For Morons

Why?

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. I believe in this whole-heartedly.

And I appreciate anyone who has the gumption to protest despite their handicapped abilities to articulate what they oppose. Their right, and ours, to a freedom of speech is something few in this world can savor. Another right we should not forget to savor, though, is the right to mock them.

Some of these signs have been floating around the internet for a while and could be called classics, others are new. They just needed to be collected in one place. Please enjoy, and share it with your friends.